


Photography

by orphan_account



Series: JayTim Week 2016 Entries [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Robin!Jason and his little photographer stalker, Some minor violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7705534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Entry #4</p><p>Tim hides on a freezing Gotham rooftop to get pictures of Batman and Robin. He gets what he wants.</p><p>Check the series for the premise (JayTim Week 2016 Entries).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photography

Gotham is dark. Quiet.

Tim sits on a cold rooftop for hours on end, watching the sky. It’s a cloudless night, and if he looks closely he can see some stars. Light pollution, much like all other pollution, is strong in the city. 

Tim is clad in a thick sweater and jeans, a half hearted attempt at planning ahead before he settled on a freezing rooftop in the middle of the night. There’s a sandwich next to him, half eaten and left alone on the plastic bag he brought it in. His camera rests in his hands, strap draped loosely over his neck. 

He waits. 

Rarely is Gotham ever as peaceful as this. He can hear the dull roar of the city’s wind, its streets alive with motion. Once in a while, a car will pass far beneath him. The air is crisp and fresh in his lungs. 

He wonders how many people are awake right now. How many people are out walking or partying or waiting on the streets for friends or strangers. Are they more numerous than the people safely asleep in their homes? Tim should be asleep, home and safe in his bed. His parents would kill him if they knew he’s out here, not to mention the reason for his sitting around in the Gotham night like a freebie for muggers. Granted, they would have to climb a bit. 

Most people in Gotham learn to climb buildings by middle school. It helps to have, just as a reserve. Whether it’s for a future in fighting crime, committing it, or simply avoiding the fallout. It’s one of those trends that only ever develop due to very specific social conditions. 

The wind picks up a bit. It’s getting colder. Soon he won’t be able to sit on tilted rooftops the way he does now. It’ll be too slippery for him to keep his footing. He’ll find a way around it, stick to balconies and fire escapes for a while. It means he’ll have to get in the habit of checking windows as he goes. He can’t risk getting caught. 

Speaking of getting caught, he can hear people on the ground below. There’s some shouting, a lot of commotion as what sounds like a dumpster gets knocked around. He sits up straighter, clutches his camera tight. 

Creeping up to the edge of the roof is a shot of adrenaline. He is very high up. Looking out over the edge makes him involuntarily picture a vague image of what falling would be from this height. He lies on his stomach and holds the camera over the edge. He then zooms in on the dark shapes he can see in the alley below. 

Batman is already on the scene. He is in the middle of throwing a man hard against a wall when Tim snaps the first shot. He has a bad angle from here, but there aren’t many places to hide closer to the ground. He has to settle for this viewpoint for the moment. 

Batman knees another man in the stomach, and Tim’s camera clicks quickly. Then, without warning, there’s a flash of bright colours which swoops out from right behind Batman, as though it has always been there, waiting to be deployed. Tim zooms, a little too eagerly, and has to zoom back out a moment later. 

Robin’s moves flow perfectly around Batman’s more grounded style. He flashes a bright grin and aims a high kick at a man while Batman goes for another. Tim watches in awe. 

He watches Robin fly almost every night. Batman and Robin are a pain in the neck to find at any given time, but Tim didn’t get a police radio and set up monitoring of social media for nothing. He has a lot of pictures under his bed that are botched for one reason or another, trial and error of feet and faces out of frame, blurry poses and awkward lighting. He can’t get rid of the failed ones though, because he only has so many. His own work is the best he’s seen when it comes to Batman and Robin, and he takes no small amount of pride in it. They really are easier to get pictures of when they’re unaware, and not many people can sneak up on Batman. 

Tim recoils a little bit when he notices Batman glance up his way. He pulls the camera back onto the rooftop and watches in horror as Robin deftly swings his way up towards him. For a horrifying few seconds, he thinks he’s been spotted, but Robin doesn’t climb all the way up. 

He stops on the window frame just below where Tim lies. Tim freezes up and tries not to breathe, aware that he may be closer than anyone has ever been to the phenomenon that is Robin the Boy Wonder without being at the business end of a pointed green shoe. His stomach is lurching with excitement, and he can’t resist peeking over the edge again, if only to get a glimpse. 

Robin delivers. He lunges from the window into open air just as Tim pokes his head and his camera back out, and Tim is so surprised to see Robin facing him, mid-volt in the air, that he instinctively presses the trigger on the camera. The flash goes off, and Tim feels his soul leave his body as a lump of fear rises in his throat. He sees Robin follow his trajectory with fluid movements and land with heavy footfalls on the shoulders of a man Batman is just finishing with. The man goes down hard, and the heroes attention goes to the last person in the alley with them: the woman whose purse is strewn all over the ground. She cowers in a corner and watches them. 

Tim wastes no time as they begin to ask her for her status. He scrambles to back away from the edge and get himself into an upright position. Then he bolts for the nearest chimney and hides behind it. 

He sits there for a good twenty seconds, just waiting for them to come looking for him, but no one comes. Instead he hears the distant cracks of their grapples and the swoosh of their capes as they disappear. He sits on the freezing cold roof and breathes, incredibly loudly now that he knows he doesn’t have to be quiet. 

He raises the camera to his face, almost pressing into it, and switches it to viewing mode. 

What he sees makes him gasp audibly. Then he’s laughing, chuckling with wonder and disbelief. 

Robin, the Boy Wonder, stares back at him from the tiny screen. Whole and in perfect focus. He is suspended in a graceful arch - legs straight, about to be aimed downwards while his arms stretch out to the sides. He is a perfect image of grace, about to be brought down on the man below with a vengeance.

Tim clutches the camera to his chest, elated. It’s the best one yet. 


End file.
